Student Goal Setting based on Learning Targets

I'm super excited about the goal-setting my first grade readers did this week! Plus, it ended up being a great topic to share here, in my favorite linky - Bright Ideas!

We are a district that implements the Teachers' College Reading & Writing Project model for Reading (and Writing) Workshop. It's our second year and boy, oh boy, is it FUN to be in my second year. LOVE having a full year's experience under my belt, as TCRWP was a huge change from our Guided Reading Centric literacy model.

Our main learning targets for Unit 1 are on green paper. We're through Bend 2 in Unit 2 and our main learning target is on blue paper.

I like keeping a running history of what we're really striving for as readers - cuz readers take a lonnnnng time to develop.

Once the Target board is filled up, I'll make a "packet" of the previous targets and post it to the board so readers (and I) can flip through them when we need a refresher.

I love to have my first graders involved in and empowered by our Learning Targets - you can see how they have additions and highlights and (not very good) illustrations...

One strategy I've used is to have the students help me formulate the learning target. Yes - I have to know the learning target ahead of time and yes - the mini-lesson includes a specific method that names the learning target multiple times...but what wonderful higher order thinking to have the students join you in deciding how to record it.

Once a target is posted and a mini-lesson fits into one that's up, I have my cuties think about the mini-lesson and decide under which target it belongs. They love doing this!

This week I wanted to take it further and have them set goals for themselves based on the target they felt they needed to work on.

To make the process as clean as possible, I took a picture of the target board...put the pic in a PowerPoint slide and typed up text boxes with the targets. The text boxes are in the same order as the targets are on the target board, since that is what they're familiar with.

Here's a closer look:

I'm absolutely thrilled with how my firsties did at self-selecting an appropriate goal! They, by and large, selected the goal that I would choose for them...but they were (and are) empowered because they did it ON THEIR OWN!
Here's a sample of a goal from each of the targets.
I typed what the student wrote for you, as pencil doesn't always show up well in photos.

I made a copy of their goal and they added it to their Take Home Book Envelope for parents to see and build upon while they read at home, too.
For next week's Reading Log, I added mini-versions of the targets along the bottom so that students can highlight their goal on their log, too.
I plan to checkpoint with them in strategy groups by goal (all the build stamina's together, all the warm up before reading's together, etc) next week and my teaching points will be centered around their goal during the strategy group.
Thanks for stopping by today!!! I hope you found this helpful!!!

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